Art of Mo’ Wax: Futura 2000
Part of the appeal of a Mo’ Wax release, other than the music, is their amazing artwork, and the label became famous for their visually appealing packaging. This series will take a a brief look at some of the artists who worked with Mo’ Wax between 1992–2003.
Leonard McGurr is better known as the artist Futura 2000, or simply Futura. His work appeared across the covers of many releases on Mo’ Wax in the mid-90s, and his pointman characters are still used on UNKLE releases to this day.
Futura, who took his name from the Futura typeface, Ford’s Lincoln Futura car, and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, began his graffiti work in New York during the 1970s, but moved to canvas in the 80s as galleries became interested in street art.
In 1981 Futura took his art on the road as he toured with The Clash and created artwork behind the band as they played. The following year he released his own 12" single The Escapades Of Futura 2000, co-written by Mick Jones and featuring The Clash as his band.
The back of the 12" featured parts of an artwork by Futura, which could be joined up with Grand Mixer D.St. & The Infinity Rappers’ The Grand Mixer Cuts It Up, Fab 5 Freddy’s Une Salle Histoire, Phase II’s The Roxy, and Tribe 2’s What I Like to reveal the full artwork.
Futura performed his song on stage with The Clash in Paris, but perhaps more importantly, the 1982 French tour was where he met his wife Christine. They married in 1985 and celebrated the birth of their son Timothy as Futura continued to exhibit his work in galleries, earning what New York Magazine in 1986 called “a small fortune”.
Futura’s abstract paintings drew comparisons to Wassily Kandinsky and Jackson Pollock, with many reviews insisting on the Kandinsky influence, but Futura has maintained he only saw his work years later, telling Interview “When I first started making painting in 1979–81 people were comparing me to Kandinsky and making references to other artists throughout art history whom I had never heard of.”
By the late 80s the interest in graffiti painting had fizzled out, and to support his family Futura took work as a cab driver and bike messenger, even passing the entry exam for the Police Academy, though he changed his mind about that one. By 1991 there had been a resurgence of interest in Futura’s work, with New York Magazine reporting his paintings were selling for $5000 each, and he took part in exhibitions around the world again.
In 1993 his work was exhibited in New York, LA, France, and at the Berlin Art Academy in Germany, and Futura visited Berlin to take part in the first Cycle Messenger World Championships. While there he created live art with his friend Stash, and met James Lavelle who was DJing in Berlin at the time.
Lavelle had recently started his label Mo’ Wax. Initially each of their releases featured a uniform look, designed by Swifty, but as the label grew, so too did Lavelle’s ambitions, and he asked Futura if he had any artwork that could be used on record sleeves.
The first two paintings Lavelle bought were used on the DJ Shadow / DJ Krush split Lost And Found (S.F.L.) / Kemuri, and UNKLE’s The Time Has Come, that both released in 1994. This led to Mo’ Wax sponsoring Futura’s art exhibitions, and James Lavelle introducing Futura to Japanese artist Nigo, which led to collaborations with his Bape clothing label.
But perhaps the most famous collaboration between Futura (he dropped the “2000” from his name around 1995) and James Lavelle is the artwork for Psycence Fiction, UNKLE’s debut album, which features Futura’s pointman characters.
Following Psycence Fiction, the pointman was turned into a toy by Mo’ Wax, and they would reappear on UNKLE’s second album Never Never Land in 2003, which had its own tie-in merchandise too. By 2004 the characters had been used for UNKLE collaborations with Be@rbrick and Kubrick toys, and Mo’ Wax Arts released the RAH figure, again based on Futura’s artwork.
In 2004 Futura discussed the use of his work with Lee’s Toy Review. He said:
The Unkle thing has been ridden quite a bit…there’s been a saturation of it on a lot of exterior levels that I can’t control. It’s something I’ve moved away from as far as representational imagery of what I’m doing right now.
At the time, Futura was preparing to release his own figure, the Nosferatu, and he explained to the magazine how he was excited to get more hands on with the creation process, telling them:
In most cases the things inside [the box] isn’t really a representation of something I did, so much as it’s a lot of stuff based on a one time drawing I did. I would never go out of my way to say bad things, but if someone were to ask me about something, maybe I would be honest with them about how they handled it.
Adding to this, in 2004 James Lavelle and Nike collaborated to create the Nike SB Dunk Hi DUNKLE. The shoe featured artwork from UNKLE’s Never Never Land album, including Futura’s pointman and his signature atom swirl designs. Futura expressed disappointment over this in the 2005 documentary Sneakerheadz, telling them “I don’t want to blow up the spot and say it was completely unauthorised, but it was a little bit like “Oh…oh you’re doing it? Oh ok.” Y’know, thanks for asking me.””
Controversies aside, Futura and James Lavelle had some wonderful collaborations, including the Futura book. Put together by Ben Drury, who was responsible for most of Mo’ Wax’s graphic design, the book was released in 2000 and has since become a collectors item. Discussing the book in 2012, Futura reflected that James Lavelle was instrumental in exposing his work to a new audience, “Without the UNKLE experience, I don’t think anyone would have ever heard of the Pointman.”
Since Mo’ Wax closed in 2003, Futura’s imagery has continued to be a part of James Lavelle’s work and the UNKLE brand, and although Futura had stopped using figures in his work for several years, he eventually brought them back and pointman-like figures and characters have appeared in much of his recent work again. This included 2019’s FL-001 series, and continued with FL-002 and FL-003 figures as part of the return of his Futura Laboratories brand.
In 2021 Futura installed a large rocket in Hong Kong surrounded by a new series of figures known as FL-006, and he has also collaborated with NEIGHBORHOOD for a pointman incense holder.
In the past few years he also found time to collaborate with brands including UNIQLO, Levi’s, Nike, COMME des GARÇONS, Nigo’s Human Made, and cycling brand Cinelli, while also releasing new books and merch drops.
For those unable to see his work in person, or to purchase his limited releases, thankfully Futura shares his images online through Instagram, occasionally interacting with fans and collectors in the comments.
Notably, Futura had been early to embrace the internet, launching his own website in 1996. The site, which you can see archived here, was like a maze, filled with images hidden across pages, waiting to be discovered by his fans. Back in 2002 Futura explained his appreciation for how easy it was to share his work this way, telling Spine Magazine, “The spontaneity of the web, like how you can just upload to it is ideal. It’s like spraypaint! Pssssst — it’s dry!”
External Links
Futura’s official Instagram, and the Futura Laboratories Instagram.
